VivirLatino

A belated Happy Mother’s Day to all who observed yesterday. The VL team has lots of mami power and yesterday as I spent the day cleaning, working, and yes visiting my own Mami and Titi, I was thinking about Latina mami’hood, the trabajo of raising our children and the lessons in love, struggle, and justice that we learn and impart on our young ones.

In Chile, for example, three Mexican mothers recently testified about the deaths of their daughters. These deaths represent just a tiny fraction of the hundreds of deaths and disappearances of mujeres in Ciudad Juarez.

Between 1993 and 2008 there were 447 registered cases of femicides in and around Juárez that are marked by signs of rape and extreme torture. Apart from the 447 registered cases, there are an estimated 70 young women still missing.

The State of México is accused for failing to confront the femicide phenomenon and in so doing, violating the right to life of its victims. Although only three mothers of the victims came to testify in Santiago, the court signaled that the three cases represent all of the femicides that have taken place in México to date.

The three mothers of the murdered women who testified were Irma Monreal, mother of Esmeralda Herrera, 14, Josefina González, mother of Claudia Ivette Conzález Banda, 20, and Benita Monárrez, mother of Laura Berenice Remos Monárrez, 17. On Tuesday, April 28, the mother’s gave their stories.

Their daughters were found dead in October 2001 along with the bodies of five other women and girls in a zone known as “Campo Algondonero” in Juarez.

The women had been tortured, raped and mutilated.
“I have faith and trust in the judges of this court,” said Monárrez. “I have faith that we will find justice.”

Instead of receiving flowers on Mother’s Day, these mothers are putting flowers on their daughter’s graves.

Speaking of flowers…….
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